Lesson Analyses

Day 1:
-Students learned about how to play in a swing style (which most of them already knew, this was just a
review) and what jazz improvisation is, both by me explaining it them and by them trying it. They also
developed introductory improvising skills by improvising on single notes and on just the roots of chords.
This all can be seen in the video.

-I followed the plan about how I thought I would, but the instructions I gave them at the end of
rehearsal (for what to look at for next time) ended up being irrelevant as I completely changed my plan
for the next rehearsal. Although I gave them a full packet of music (labeled “Jazz Packet 1” on this page),
we would only end up using the first three pieces and the scales.

-I monitored student learning in a variety of ways. After we played certain exercises, I asked students to
evaluate how they thought they did. I also made sure to walk around the room so that even when
everyone played together, I could gauge individual understanding and progress. When I asked individual
questions and asked for volunteers to play alone, which gave me additional insight.

-As mentioned above, I would have been more selective with how much written material I gave them
(especially for an improvisation-based lesson). If I were to include some of that material, I think it would
have been more appropriate to offer it to the more advanced students outside of rehearsal.

Day 2:
-Students further developed their improvising skills by expanding to the full mixolydian scales (F7 and
Bb7, those used in the first 8 measures of an F blues). We only focused on the first eight measures for
most of this lesson. This is all evidenced by the video.

-I followed my lesson plan pretty strictly today. It was different than my initial plan, but between the
first and second rehearsals I was able to refine my goals and procedures to fit what the students
needed.

-In this lesson, I continued to walk around the classroom to check on student’s individual learning and
progress. After one particularly difficult exercise, I asked the class how they thought they did. After the
result was mostly negative, I changed my instruction and had them try again. Their playing and their
attitude showed me that they had improved.

-Despite this being an extra-curricular ensemble, I think I could have done more with written
assessment. There were more complex topics introduced in this lesson, and I think having a worksheet
for students to answer written questions on may have helped certain types of learners, as well as
provide me with more evidence of student learning.
Day 3:
-Students learned how to play the rest of the blues and learned the F blues scale. By the end, they were
able to improvise over a 12-bar F blues. This can all be seen in the video.

-I was not able to get through the entire plan for today. I wanted to end with everyone getting a chance
to play alone, but we ran out of time just before.

-Similar to the previous sessions, I monitored student learning by checking their musical accuracy and
how adventurous their improvisation was (within reason). For example, some students were only
playing one or two different pitches, some were only playing the original melody of the tune we were
working on (Blues in the Closet), while some were fully exploring all of the chord changes. Later in the
rehearsal when I split the students in to pairs, I used what I observed earlier to decide who to pair with
who.

-As mentioned above, I wished I was able to have all the students play alone (as much as they were
afraid of it). If I had integrated that more in earlier parts of the rehearsal, we may not have run out of
time, and students may have left with a more concrete sense of their final accomplishments.